Welcome, Sara Nickerson! I’m happy to host you here on The Winged Pen about your new middle grade book, Last Meeting of the Gorilla Club. Let’s dive right in.
- What a beautiful cover! Where did the inspiration for Last Meeting of the Gorilla Club come from?
Yes, the fabulous cover! It was designed by Maria Fazio at Penguin Random House and illustrated by Maeve Norton.
As for the inspiration: I’ve always been drawn to ghost stories that have a strong psychological or emotional element. For this novel, I wanted to explore the real haunting that can come from family histories and secrets. At one point my main character has the realization that maybe ghost stories are not about the ghosts, but about the people who see them.
- There is such a nice, moody vibe to this book. How did you keep yourself in the right mindset while writing?
I think a lot of the moody vibe comes from the setting, which is directly tied to my childhood. Even though my family moved around a lot, we always ended up next to a forest. It was both wonderful and creepy. Maybe that’s why I’m interested in borderlines—the places between wilderness and civilization, childhood and adulthood, real-life and magic. I write with those spaces in mind, which is why the Pacific Northwest ends up being a character in all my books.
- I was intrigued early on and wanted to know where these characters’ stories would take them. You have two points of view in this book, which we don’t see too often in middle grade. When did you know the story required the two perspectives?
The first several drafts were written in the first-person point of view, and the narrator was Josh. My editor, Julie Strauss-Gabel, thought I should try a version in the third person. It was the perfect suggestion. Suddenly, we need to know more about Lucas—why he sees what he does—so I wrote in alternating perspectives. I liked what that did for the story: it showed how much these two characters needed to find one another, and how their secrets had trapped them in similar hard places. It also highlighted the trajectory of their individual journeys and ultimate meeting, all leading to the dramatic, spooky showdown.
- As a little teaser for your future readers: How did you decide on a phrase for the pirate? Because it works and some say you’re never wrong to include a pirate.
Honestly, he walked onto the page, just the way he is and saying what he does. And of course five-year-old Josh would meet a pirate on a playground, wouldn’t he?
5. One of the themes in this book seems to be about finding acceptance. Can you speak on who Josh finds more dependable?
There are so many ways of being in the world, but I don’t think it feels that way for a lot of people, especially when we’re young. In 4th grade, when we moved from a small town of Rochester, Washington, to the bigger town of Olympia, I didn’t speak for most of the school year. It took being cast in a play (Hans Brinker—I was the mom) to help me find my voice. So I have a lot of empathy for kids who feel invisible and who judge themselves harshly for it, as Josh does. Except for the brief teasing at the beginning of the book, the kids in this story are kind. It’s more about Josh, learning to accept himself and appreciate his unique and amazing qualities. That’s when he’s finally able to make a real friend.
- Josh’s bicycle represents freedom to him. What made you put him on his bike? And where do you shop for your inspirational quotes?
The bike was Big Brother’s idea. I wanted Josh’s best and first “imaginary” friend to come back with an agenda—to help get Josh involved in the real world. And there was a part of Josh that wanted everything Big Brother was advocating for: to step out, take a chance, connect with people.
As for the inspirational quotes, I wanted something that could show Josh’s dad’s hopes and dreams for his son, and also his deep fear. The posters are a way of communicating without being direct, and also without really listening. As the story progresses and Josh begins to find his own inspiration, he starts to question his father’s choice of posters, and how they relate (or don’t) to him. And, yes, I had a few on my wall as a kid.
- What did your research comprise of for this book? Did you observe any classrooms or kids?
It started with the gorilla experiment, which shows how being focused on something—or expecting to see something a certain way—can actually make us miss what’s right in front of us. That led to more research on inattentional blindness.
As for the classroom scenes: I’ve worked with a lot of teachers over the years, volunteering in grade school classrooms and libraries. The school building was modeled after my own high school, which had this remarkable above ground library. The space underneath really was called the Hello Walk, and was as overwhelming as it sounds.
- I thought this book held such good examples of the boxes we sometimes put ourselves in—kids and adults alike. And how often we need others to help us see outside of those boxes to gain perspective.
That’s the point of the Gorilla Club. Perception is often so determined by what we expect to see or what we’re used to seeing. I’ve always loved those sight and perception tests, where we look at a picture and see one thing but completely miss another. There’s a scene in the book where Josh realizes he’s put all his inspirational posters in the same exact arrangement as they were back in his old bedroom, and his mom has done the same with the family photographs on the wall. They’ve moved across the country for a new start, but they’ve completely recreated their past without even noticing.
- It takes a long time to get a book out. How do you motivate yourself through the process when it takes so many years?
I try to keep my focus on the writing. I love puzzling together a story and I write nearly every day. I’ll work on a manuscript for a couple of hours and then go for a walk. Those walks usually clear up some sort of problem I’ve been having in the story. I also am a big fan of writing workshops and classes. No matter where I’m at in the process, a good writing workshop will help me focus in a new way.
10. What are you working on now?
I’m working on a new middle grade novel called An Echo of Giants. It’s set in 1973, the summer of the televised Watergate Hearings. Four kids are on a quest to rescue a goose that’s been living with an arrow through its chest. They are searching for truth and justice, wherever they can find it.
Lightning Round:
a. Coffee or tea? Coffee
b. Hardcover or paperback? Both
c. Grow and cook your own food or sit back and eat it? I want to say grow and cook, but honestly? Sit back and eat it.
d. Be read to or read to yourself? Read to myself
e. Favorite place to write? Bed
f. Cats or dogs? Chihuahuas.
Thanks so much, Sara. Order Gorilla now, everyone. And check out Sara’s other books on her website: saranickerson.com